HUC-JIR Rabbinical Thesis

For my HUC-JIR rabbinical thesis, I studied the contemporary Jewish theologian Arthur Green. The thesis was titled: "You are the One who fills all names, but You Yourself have no specific name": Projection and the Personal God in the Theology of Arthur Green.

Full PDF of the thesis
Two significant excerpts of Green's writing
Library loan


Summary

This rabbinical thesis explores the theology of Arthur Green (b. 1941) as expressed in his popular theological trilogy. In particular, it explores the role of projection in Green’s notion of the personal God.

Green describes his theology of mystical panentheism as “monistic”—that is, non-dualistic. Nevertheless, Green remains committed to the classical Jewish “mythology of relationship”—the claim that God cares for and makes demands of humankind. In a non-dualist system—where there is no separation between self and God—such a commitment is counterintuitive.

The goal of this thesis is explore how Green bridges the divide between monism and the mythology of relationship.

Chapter 1 explores the fundamentals of Green’s theological system. Chapter 2 seeks to understand how Green’s non-dual God is approached in relationship.

Primarily, this thesis relies on Green’s popular theological trilogy: Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology (2003), EHYEH: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow (2004), and Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition (2010).